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Rakghoul Plague
Original Wookiepedia Article: ☀http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul_plague A disease engineered by the ancient Sith Lord Karness Muur. Muur, seeking a means to escape death and achieve galactic conquest, forged a Sith amulet that came to be known as the Muur Talisman, an item into which Muur poured his mind, will, and Sith magic. The Muur Talisman's power could almost instantaneously turn any nearby sentient being into a mindless rakghoul, a Sith-spawned mutant subservient to Muur's will. But the talisman's power was not perfect, and it could not transform Force-sensitives or beings belonging to certain non-Human speciesinto rakghouls, and thus Muur designed the rakghoul plague to compensate for this weakness. The virus-like plague, carried by every rakghoul in existence at the time, could be spread to another being by a bite or a scratch from a rakghoul's claw. The victim would then suffer through an incubation period lasting approximately six to forty-eight hours before being transformed into a rakghoul, one fully capable of spreading the Sith-made disease on to further victims. After the Cold War, the rakghouls were isolated on Taris and—likely due in part to the serum Revan recovered—driven to extinction. However, while the Muur Talisman remained, the threat of the rakghouls did as well. Approximately fourteen hundred years before the galaxy-spanning Clone Wars, ice miners discovered the oubliette of Dreypa beneath the surface of Jebble. A mystery to it finders, the oubliette became known as the "Jebble Box", and the inability to open it or scan what was inside bred numerous rumors as to its origins. Collectors bought and sold the box they believed to be an ancient Jedi treasure, and wars were even fought over the mysterious object. In 19 BBY, the crew of the starship Uhumele brought the box to a desolate moon with the intent to sell it to the scholar and antiquities collector Fane Peturri; Peturri was in league with Darth Vader and his Sith Master, Darth Sidious, and the black-armored Sith Lord released Celeste Morne from stasis. Upon finding her rescuer to be a Sith, Morne attacked Vader and engaged him in a battle of lightsabers. When Vader proved too powerful, Morne was forced to use the Muur Talisman to unleash the rakghoul plague and save herself, transforming Vader's stormtroopers into rakghouls that subsequently attacked their former commander. Vader fled, but the activation of the talisman's magic had an unintended side effect: the talisman transformed the only human member of the Uhumele's crew into a rakghoul as well, and the ship's captain was forced to kill her. Vader fled, as did the Uhumele crew, leaving Morne alone on the moon with only the rakghouls she had spawned and the spirit of Karness Muur for company. Close to twenty years passed, but Vader did not forget the events that transpired on that barren moon. Nine months after the Battle of Yavin, Vader ordered a scouting party to the desert moon to ascertain the fate of Morne. When the shuttle of stormtroopers neared the moon's surface, Morne used the Force to drag the shuttle down before transforming everyone aboard with the talisman-borne rakghoul plague. Now sure that Morne did indeed still live, Vader tasked his spy, Wyl Tarson, with instructions to leak word of a secret Imperial weapon located on the moon, and ensure that it was noticed by members of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a group of rebels that had been formed in the years since Vader had first confronted Morne as a force to oppose the oppressive Empire and restore the Republic that it had once been. A small team of "Rebel Alliance" members traveled to the moon, unable to resist the lure of the potential victory over their Imperial enemies. Almost immediately upon setting down, however, the strike team was beset by Morne's rakghoul horde, and a number of them were infected by the rakghoul plague during the resulting skirmish. One group of rebels were able to escape the attack aboard Captain Han Solo'spersonal ship, the Millennium Falcon, while rebel leader Princess Leia Organa and friend Luke Skywalker were momentarily left behind with the former clone trooper, Able. Morne, having suffered through nearly twenty years with none but the corrupting presence of Karness Muur's spirit as a companion, had become convinced that the Jedi had abandoned her and attacked the Force-sensitive Skywalker. When Organa attempted to assist him and Morne turned her blade on her instead, Able rushed to the Princess' defense only to fall victim to the rakghoul plague and be transformed into a rakghoul. When Muur's spirit realized the untapped Force potential within both Skywalker and Organa, he detached his talisman's hold on Morne and attacked Skywalker. Coming to her senses, Morne batted the Sith amulet away and retook the burden onto herself. Her control over Muur regained, Morne turned away from the two rebels and boarded the shuttle they had arrived on the moon with, and departed with her legion of rakghouls, leaving Skywalker and Organa to flee aboard the returned Millennium Falcon. As she passed out of the moon's orbit, Morne flew by a waiting Imperial-class Star Destroyer, turning the crew into rakghouls with the talisman's plague before vanishing into space as the capital ship crashed into the surface of the moon and was destroyed. Over a hundred years passed as Morne traveled the galaxy, before being taken aboard the Pellaeon-class Star Destroyer, Iron Sun in 127 ABY. Believing the cruiser to be in the employ of the Empire she had awoken to under Vader and Palpatine, Morne unleashed the rakghoul plague upon the Star Destroyer, transforming the Iron Sun's crew into a new rakghoul army. Another ten years passed before the commandeered Iron Sun took on new captives: the crew of the Mynock, led by Cade Skywalker and on a mission to assassinate the current Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Krayt. The crew was shortly attacked by rakghouls, and during their efforts to repel the beastly aggressors, Skywalker was bitten and his Imperial Knight companion, Azlyn Rae, scratched, both becoming infected with the rakghoul plague. Celeste Morne was able to halt the rakghouls' attack after reasserting control, but when she discovered the two had been infected, the Jedi took it upon herself to isolate Skywalker and Rae from their companions, imprisoning them within a detention cell while she promised each a swift death after the transformation occurred. To her surprise, however, Skywalker was able to use his tremendous Force-healing ability to cure himself and Rae of the plague, impressing Morne and earning the Mynock crew a new ally against Krayt. Skywalker's team launched an attack on the Imperial base located on the Deep Core planet of Had Abbadon, shortly after. There, Morne transformed a number of the base's stormtroopers into rakghouls, who then aided the group in battle against the Devaronian Sith Lord, Darth Reave. Reave was wounded by the rakghouls, and fled back to Coruscant where he delivered a report to Darth Krayt at the Temple of the Sith. During the meeting, Reave succumbed to the effects of the rakghoul plague and transformed into a rakghoul, attacking his former Sith allies before being struck down by Darth Stryfe. Taking the bait laid before them, Krayt and a cadre of his loyal Sith traveled to Had Abbadon where they were ambushed by Skywalker and his group; Morne unleashed her rakghoul horde on Darth Krayt, but the combined force of Krayt's Force lightning and Darth Stryfe's protective lightsaber defense cut the rakghouls down in droves. Still, the Sith fell to Skywalker's team and Krayt himself was dealt a mortal wound by Azlyn Rae that left everyone involved believing Krayt dead. In the battle's aftermath, Morne asked that Skywalker end her life, knowing she was losing her battle for control with the spirit of Karness Muur. Skywalker solemnly granted her wish and took her life with his lightsaber, only for the Muur Talisman to target Skywalker as its new host. However, Skywalker had no interest in the power Muur offered, and instead used the Force to destroy the talisman once and for all, putting an end to its ability to spread the rakghoul plague. Though the Muur Talisman was gone, any rakghouls that continued to live after the events on Had Abbadon, still carried the potential to spread the rakghoul plague to other victims.